Correspondence and Book-Keeping

You are at your business every morning before the postman comes. LHyery letter that admits of being answered by the first post must be got out of the way. Don’t dally over your correspondence. As every letter must be answered, let there be no needless delay. Copy every business letter you write. Never mind how unimportant the letter is; if it was necessary to write it, it is desirable, to say the least of it, to copy it. Men in business take notice of the style of letter written by beginners. I often judge an unknown correspondent by his stationery. Given poor paper, mean envelopes, “dr” for “dear,” no date, and an illegible signature, and I should be careful how I had anything to do with the writer. ‘It is not an infallible sign of genius to write so hastily that nobody can read what is written. A man is not necessarily an Oliver Goldsmith because he answers letters on the backs of old envelopes, and omits all the niceties of educated correspondence. A blot should be considered a mistake, and should not be sent to a customer. It will not enlighten his mind, nor will it elucidate the subject. A wrong date, an error which the most careful men sometimes commit, may lead to serious consequences. See, then, that your letters are written on good paper, clearly written, concisely expressed, correctly dated, exactly copied, and sent off in good envelopes. Your superior correspondents will notice the style, and draw favourable inferences from it. I once had a clerk who, being a very dazzling genius, led me into many postal difficulties. The quantities of paper that boy got through are not to be stated without long and serious thought. That was, however, comparatively a trifle. The gifted youth put the letters in the wrong envelopes, and used foreign stamps for inland correspondence with a prodigal hand. This was genius. ‘This was the noblemindedness which soars above the mean region of details. When I sent him away, his mother complained of my being “severe,” and, looking at me with large and reproachful eyes, said, in an annihilating tone, “And you a minister!” How could I feel otherwise than stabbed to the very heart? That a minister should insist upon having the right letters put in the right envelopes was a blot upon modern civilisation; and that a minister should complain of paying threepence when the Postmaster only asked for a penny, was an act of atrocity incredible to the maternal imagination. I was, however, resolute, for I saw the necessity of sending the letters to their proper destination, and not treating my nearest friends as foreigners dwelling in remote lands. I am aware of the cruelty of the act, and I enter into no complicated self-defence.

You will, perhaps, think me a little suspicious of your sagacity when I proceed to insist that you must know every night exactly how you stand in your business. Beware of confusion, as you would beware of your worst enemy. You must, then, make yourself familiar with the art of book-keeping. Very few tradesmen can read their own books. Very few persons, indeed, know how to keep accounts. Merely putting down on one side what you have, and putting on the other what you spend, is not book-keeping. It is simply the most superficial of cash accounts. As a man of business, I must know every night exactly what stock I have on hand, what money I am owing, what money is owing to me, and what money I have at call in the bank. I hold that by beginning in time, and by keeping thoroughly up to the mark, this can be done with the greatest business. But at present I am speaking about a small and infant concern, and I insist that in such a case this rule must be kept with the utmost minuteness and rigour. -I know a man whose books are in such a state that he dare not look at them. He has invented a book-keeping system of his own, which is to be turned one way when the planet Mars is in conjunction with the planet Venus, and when the wind is blowing north and south at the same time some other wonderful thing has to be done. What is the consequence of all this metaphysical jugglery and stupefaction? The consequence is that the man is ruined, and that but for friendly sympathy his family would be in the workhouse. Don’t you try any such pranks. Have a foundation of strong common-sense under your business, and let every stone in the building be cut out of the quarry of common-sense, and the result will be solidity, comfort, and satisfaction. Common-sense is about the only genius you need in business. As you advance in prosperity, you will, of course, need the assistance of book-keepers, cashiers, and clerks; but whilst the business is small, you will do well to be all these people yourself. Then, when you come to need them, they will receive your instructions instead of giving you theirs. You are the master. “Let no man take

thy crown. 5